The prior art shows many devices intended to quickly connect a pair of flat cables or provide a terminal connection by piercing the cable insulation. Several isolated examples of a piercing type of device are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,835,445 to Hardesty, in 3,691,510 to Lehmann and in 3,816,819 to Judd. In each of these devices, a plurality of parallel connectors in a flat cable are inserted axially into the end of the device, and the cable is thereafter linearly cammed into a plurality of fixed piercing point terminals within the connector device. An isolated example of a connector incorporating a rotating rather than linear camming action is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,380 to Cieniawa et al. In the latter patent, however, a multiconductor round cable is prepared to cooperate with the connector by first being stripped of its outer insulation covering to expose a plurality of individually round insulated conductors. Each of this plurality of separate conductors is then fed into a separate hole in the connector.
One of the principal problems with the first mentioned three patents as well as most other flat cable connectors is that the cable, once pressed into the piercing points, does not automatically become free when the piercing process is reversed. In other words, the cam or lever or other element used to press the flat cable into the terminals' piercing points does not pull the cable free of the piercing points when it is opened to permit release of the cable. Thus, opening the connector does not entirely free the cable, and a separate manual manipulation is necessary to do that in order to avoid injurying either the cable, the terminal piercing points or some other part of the connector. Stated another way, the same element that drives the cable into the piercing points when the connection is made does not also pull the cable away from the piercing points when it is opened. Referring now to the last mentioned or Cieniawa et al patent, one of its principal problems is that it requires special preparation of the end of the cable before it is usable.
Another concept not as yet located in the prior art is that of a simple, flat cable connector which can be connected at each end into a different device without any advance preparation of the cable at either end.